Dock bumpers can help you safeguard your warehouse, your dock equipment and trailers. Every product that enters and exits your warehouse or manufacturing plant goes through the dock, so it’s important to maintain it and keep all doors available and in good shape.

Types of Dock Bumpers

Dock bumpers are typically positioned so that a trailer or truck "bumps" against them rather than against your structure. This helps to protect your facility, your dock levelers and the truck or trailer that uses your loading dock.

There are numerous varieties of dock bumpers, and picking the correct bumper can be critical, depending upon the workload of your dock operation. Adding overly-lightweight dock bumpers can sometimes lead to an early demise, while using dock bumpers that are too heavy will be ineffective and could in fact create problems when docking trailers and trucks.

The type of dock bumpers you pick will be established by the average vehicle or trailer height, the approach, overall volume and a variety of other variables. For facilities where trailers are expected to sway during loading or unloading movements, bumpers can be attached horizontally or vertically.

Molded Bumpers (Light Duty): Dock bumpers formed from molded rubber can provide defense for light duty loading docks. What’s more, these bumpers are sometimes installed inside a facility to safeguard walls, doorways and other structural elements from forklifts and other warehouse and dock equipment.

Molded rubber is the least durable option of various dock bumper styles, and is more prone to chipping or gouging. They may be a viable choice for your operation if your dock doesn’t get a high volume of truck traffic.

Laminated Bumpers (Medium Duty): Laminated bumpers have more substantial pads than molded bumpers and provide better shock absorption. They are fabricated from strips of old truck tires that have been cut to size and mounted between steel plates.

These bumpers have a moderate level of wear resistance and are flexible when it comes to height, length and overall thickness. They are often applied on docks configured with pit-style dock levelers or edge-of-dock levelers, as they offer long-lasting protection for high traffic loading docks.

Steel Faced Bumpers (Heavy Duty): Steel faced dock bumpers are designed with a sliding piece of steel that sheaths a standard laminate bumper, stopping undue erosion of the laminated rubber pads. The durable metal allows trailers to rub against the bumpers without degrading the rubber. Steel faced bumpers provide exceptional resilience, and typically are in service more than four times as long as unprotected laminate bumpers.

When Should Dock Bumpers Be Replaced?

While dock bumpers are designed to hold up against repeated impact, they do deteriorate after steady use and should be replaced from time to time. There are some things to watch for that indicate that your dock bumpers need to be replaced.

If you see wear of more than 50%, it's time for replacement. The impact absorption ability of worn out pads is simply not enough defend your building. Pads that are overly worn will eventually wear down to the steel brackets that secure them, and this may elicit unnecessary damage to both brackets and trailers.

Besides regular wear and tear, you should look for other damage like separating laminate layers, cracking, warped or rusting metal and other evident defects. Scheduled bumper inspections are a practice, just as you would regularly inspect your levelers and other loading dock equipment.

Truck Dock Bumpers Near Me

For dock bumper questions, inspection or replacement, get in touch with a loading dock equipment expert at Raymond West today.

Raymond West's Las Vegas facility serves all of the Las Vegas Valley, including Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Summerlin, Paradise, Spring Valley, Sunrise Manor, Enterprise, Winchester, Whitney and all surrounding areas.

Raymond West | Las Vegas Material Handling Equipment Supplier

2555 E Washburn Rd
North Las Vegas, NV 89081
(702) 651-6480/p>